Chau, I can't speak for the taste (although I trust your opinion immensely), but by looks alone, I'd put those up against ANY NY pie place from my old stompin' grounds, and my current stompin' grounds.

Dang Chau,those are GREAT! I can practically taste them through the screen!Wonderful job!

Have you found a flour mix balance for the NY style that you like the best yet?

Im still experimenting...Its been hard to break away from KABF since its what I have used the most...but the Bouncer HG and AP or Bouncer HG and KABF mixes have been pretty darn good too. Hope to find that mix I truly love someday.

Thank you Robyn, Ron, Jay, and Bill. I appreciate it. Just passing time until I can get the WFO up and running. I'd like to spend some more time exploring the NY style in the home oven. I have spent the majority of my time and energy focused on the hybrid style.

Ron, that is way too nice a thing to say. Honestly though, my pies may not even be close to the real deal at all. I'll have to make a trip up to NY some day soon to check out what I've been missing out on.

Bill, I haven't found that balance of flours for the NY style yet. I don't think that balance is too far from what I use now, except maybe tweak the hydration and oil a bit and add a small amount of sugar. I really got interested in NY style recently b/c of your work and a few others here.

With these pies, I decided to use 50% AP instead of 100% HG to soften the crunch on the rim just a bit.

I hear ya about experimenting and the struggle between a pie in the hand versus 2 in the oven. I have had so many failures that it's often just easier to stick with a proven recipe or method. I think your use of BF or a similiar protein content is a good balance for a NY pie. Depending on how much crunch you want on the rim I would increase or decrease the protein content along with hydration. Also how open of a crumb do you want? Also how much chew do you like? I would use those answers to dictate your blend of flours and recipe. I'm sure my idea of a NY pie is totally not correct but it seems to suit my taste.

Ron, that is way too nice a thing to say. Honestly though, my pies may not even be close to the real deal at all. I'll have to make a trip up to NY some day soon to check out what I've been missing out on.

I was already making an experimental loaf of bread with CY and recalled how last time the dough turned out really nice. Nice enough for pizza and since I'll have to heat the oven up for the bread anyways, I thought why not make some extra dough for a home oven tester pizza. Glad I did as this one ate pretty well.

HG flour, 75% hydration, 2.3% salt, 0.1% CY fermented for 12hrs. Mixed in the Bosch for 2 minutes after a 30minute autolyse. Bulked risen at room temps of 70F for about 8 hours and then divided and balled for another 6 hours at 75F. The dough opened up wonderfully and baked up just as nice. This one baked about 4 minutes with some rimming tricks, but would have benefitted from a higher stone temp and a slightly longer bake time.

Man,Those rim crumb shots are incredible.The pie looks so friggen good!Fantastic work as always!Can you tell a difference using the CY for the pizza over IDY or other yeast?If so,how would you best desribe it?

Im meaning to pick up some CY soon.I hope this time,the smell won't drive me to throw it out again.

Yes Bill, they all seem to have their uniqueness in the way they ferment and how they affect the final crumb. I find commercial yeast to be the least flavorful but the most forgiving. CY lies somewhere between commercial yeast and starters in that there is just a tiny bit more flavor, a soft crumb, but like starters, I've noticed a slightly drier crumb if overmixed or overfermented.

Concerning the crumb characteristics of CY, I started a thread on that in the yeast subforum. CY tends to also produce the most amount of gas which should translate into the final crust rise.

If you can get pass the smell of CY, when I put my nose right up to it, there is a slight sweetness there.

Made a couple of 16" NY'ers for members Pizzablogger and Scott123 tonight. These were done in the home oven. First one was baked on a pan first and then transferred onto the stone after the crust set. I wasn't in love with the crust, so I tried to load the 2nd one using my long handle home made 16" peel. Not enough room to do a straight shot b/c of the long handle so had to load it from the side. Needless to say, I got 3/4 of a pizza and 1/4 calzone.

Thanks Guys!! This was my first try at making 16" pies in the home oven and the results weren't bad. Not a perfect 10/10, but that was b/c the crust and the baking was screwed up a bit. I used a not active acidic starter and I should have known better. Also the use of the pan had some pluses and minuses, but more minuses IMO. All easy things to fix for the next couple of times. Even I can't get things perfect on the first shot.

Jason, the dough formulation is something I've used before for my previous pies. I don't recommend people use recipes as posted but rather only as guidelines. It's easy to make up your very own recipe.This one is 100% HG flour, 73% hydration (with starter), 10% starter, and 2.3% salt. Each dough weigh 455gm with a TF of 0.08.

I'm guessing the pan was a workaround to get a larger pie on a smaller stone? Can your oven handle a 16-17" stone?

Yes, if you look at the 2nd pic in reply #28, the round stone is 16" and the oblong one is 14" x 18" or approx. so.

I really wanted to make a 16" pie but my short handle wooden peel is only 14", thus the reason for the pan to set the crust first then slip off onto the stone. I wasn't happy with this b/c crust did not brown enough on the bottom while in the pan.

I then removed the round stone and tried to use my make shift 16" peel with the long handle (the one I made for the wfo) to load a 16" pie onto the oblong stone. I forgot that it is 14" front to back so I ended up with 2" hanging off which required me to fold over and make a 1/4 calzone.

Anyways I totally forgot that I have 2 - 16" pizza screens out in the garage, so next time I try this again I will build the pie on the screen and slip it off once the crust is set. That should produce a much better result in the home oven. Also next time I bake in the WFO, I will be doing 16" pies so that there is more pie for guests to eat between bakes since I'm only baking one at a time.